Monday, July 9, 2012

Pickles!

Ask me if I like pickles. Go ahead. These are just SOME of the jars of pickles that I have at home. Here is an interesting fact. My husband HATES pickles. So these are ALL mine! BAA-HA-HA-HA!

My love affair with pickles dates back to when I was just a little girl. My family raised almost all of the food that we ate, which means that our basement was always full of jars just brimming with tasty homegrown foods. My mom would usually make sweet pickles and pickled beets. I loved them both. Grandma, who lived across the road, made sweet pickles, bread & butter pickles and salt pickles. I never really cared for the salt pickles because somehow in my mind, I thought that they were "adult food." Go figure!

We always went to town (Hillsville) once a week on Saturdays. Occasionally, Grandpa Burnette rode to town with us. My mom would get her hair done, I would take my piano lesson, and when Grandpa went with us, he would hang out at the courthouse and socialize with the other men who came to town on Saturdays. While in town, we would pick up staples like flour, sugar, meal, and a few other things that we did not produce ourselves.

On this one particular Saturday, Grandpa bought a jar of Mt. Olive Sour Pickles. I had never heard of Sour Pickles before. Later that day, after we were home, I went to Grandpa's house to play. I remember that Grandma was in the kitchen cooking and I was in there "helping" her. That jar of Sour Pickles was just setting there on the table. Grandpa came into the kitchen, opened the jar and chomped down on one of those sour pickles and just smacked his mouth exclaiming that they were mighty good pickles. Then he just threw back his head and started laughing . . . and offered me one. Grandma immediately started scolding Grandpa saying that one of those pickles would make me have a stomachache. Well, you just have to understand. Anything Grandpa did, I had to do. He called me his "little tag-a-long." I followed him everywhere and mimicked him all of the time. I HAD to eat one of those pickles. I was a little scared. I took a tentative bite and made a horrible face. MAN, were those things SOUR!! But, after a second nibble, I discovered that I LOVED sour pickles! After that introduction, many was the time that Grandpa and I would sit on the front porch munching from a bowl filled with pickles!

After that, my Grandma would make me sour pickles when she picked cucumbers from the garden. It got to the point where she was almost using straight vinegar and very little sugar in those pickles in an attempt to make them sour enough for me and Grandpa. She said that they were so sour that they would make a pig squeal! I could eat a whole quart jar of those pickles and still be looking for more.

In the early 2000's I fell in love with Vlasic Sour Pickles. I ate them all the time. Unfortunately, Vlasic stopped making those pickles around 2005 and I was heartbroken. They were THE BEST store-bought sour pickles ever.

I love all kinds of pickles with the exception of those that have a garlic taste to them. Yuck! I am always on a quest to find another really good sour pickle, so if you know of a brand, please, let me know so that I can give them a try!